Leak-detecting quantum camera cuts oil and gas industry emissions
A new a quantum-enabled gas imaging camera can help dramatically cut environmentally damaging methane leaks from the oil and gas industry, researchers say.
The camera is produced and developed by University of Bristol spinout QLM Technology and funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s commercialising quantum technologies challenge.
It can visualise and measure the amount of gas being lost through leaks from great distances.
This represents a major improvement on current methods of detection, which are time consuming and make measuring the amount lost difficult.
This camera uses state of the art quantum technology to ‘see the invisible’.
It will help reduce the amount of methane which escapes into the atmosphere through leaks, which is both costly to the oil and gas industry and damaging to the environment.
Scientists estimate that if just 3.2% of methane brought up from wells leaks rather than being burnt, natural gas becomes even less eco-friendly than coal.
It is therefore imperative that leaks be minimised or eliminated altogether.
Researchers say the camera will:
- reduce costly losses of gas
- make facilities safer
- keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.
‘The oil and gas majors have pledged to significantly reduce their methane emissions, but you can’t manage what you can’t measure and no-one is measuring methane properly, continuously, and at scale,’ says Murray Reed, CEO of QLM Technology.
‘The scale of the problem is enormous, with more than half a million active gas wells in North America alone, and many thousands of offshore rigs and gas storage facilities worldwide.
‘In the UK we have 24 major pipeline compressor stations, which power long-distance natural gas pipes, and hundreds of above ground storage installations. All are leaking at some time.’
